Many businesses have a private network. The private network may include a local area network (LAN) and/or an enterprise network. Workers may wish to access these private networks remotely via a public network such as the Internet. Techniques exist for providing access to private networks over the public network and for providing secure, encrypted transmission of messages and data between a user's computing device and the private network over the public network. One such technique is a virtual private network (VPN).
The private network may be configured to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the private network and to allow only authorized users to access the private network and/or information stored in the private network. Recognizing such authorized users typically relies on verifying the identity of the user, i.e., authenticating the user to the network. Typically, a user may be asked to provide a username and password in order to authenticate to and access the private network. In some circumstances, the user may be asked to provide additional authentication such as a passcode.
A user that wishes to access a private network with a computing device may authenticate to the computing device using a username and password then may be requested to authenticate to the private network with another password and possibly another username. To ensure security, passwords should be changed relatively frequently. The user must then either remember the passwords or record them for later retrieval. Neither technique is particularly reliable and a recorded password may be retrieved by someone other than the user, potentially compromising security.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.